Terms and conditions
Contents
1. General
2. Price Quote Phase
3. Readying the Questionnaire
4. On-line Questionnaire
5. Exportation of results
1. General
1.1 Security
All servers are protected by various authentication
methods. A name and password are, for example, not sufficient: one
needs to log in from a particular IP address.
The staff's passwords meet stern demands of complexity, and there
is a central record of attempts to log in. If an attempt fails a
certain number of times, the account is automatically locked.
An extensive Defense in Depth system ensures that physical entry is
practically impossible (hacking, security, entrance only with
identification, passes, entrance only to own hosting space, locks
on the racks, camera security, etc.).
1.2 SPAM
ISIZ follows a strict anti-spam policy. ISIZ only accepts
e-mail addresses of respondents who have given permission to be
approached. Possible exceptions to this policy are projects such as
staff questionnaires.
ISIZ is connected to white-list organisations. This means that
various spam filters will not block ISIZ mail.
When in doubt, ISIZ reserves the right to perform spot-checks to
ensure the address list fulfils the criteria.
ISIZ is fined when they violate anti-spam regulations (see www.bondedsender.com). By violating the ISIZ anti-spam regulations (e.g. providing e-mail addresses that are not confirmed opt-in), the client risks a fine at the cost of the fine imposed on ISIZ, plus 15% administration costs. A fine is imposed when a receiver of spam files a complaint (and when this complaint is deemed valid). The cost of the fine depends on the number of incidents. The fine for one incident will amount to circa €25.00.
In addition to white-lists, ISIZ uses blacklists. Blacklists are lists of people who have notified they do not wish to receive e-mail. These blacklists are kept per customer or per project.
ISIZ goes further. On top of the regulations mentioned above, ISIZ will also participate in the SPF framework. This means that the identity of the sender can most likely be determined by means of technical adaptations of the DNS. This serves to ensure that the invitations are received only by those who are meant to receive them. Nothing more, nothing less.
If the e-mail addresses are collected in the field or in any other non-computer related way, it is important that the original papers on which e-mail addresses have been taken down (preferably written by the respondent him/herself) be retained.
The e-mails that are to be sent out always need to fulfil the following conditions:
- Valid sender - Our standard is to use the survey helpdesk mail address as the survey's sender e-mail address
- Unambiguous subject - The subject of the e-mail may not be deceiving and must clearly state the contents of the e-mail
- Unambiguous content - The full content must be clear and honest
- Sender - The invitation must always be signed with a name or organisation. It must be clear to the respondent who he or she is dealing with.
- Contact information - In addition to a valid sender address it is preferred that contact information is included in the e-mail.
- Cancellation link - the respondent must be able to indicate they do no longer wish to be approached
- Anonymity
1.3 Liability
ISIZ bears limited liability for mistakes. ISIZ does
everything in their power to ensure no mistakes are made. If any
mistakes are made, ISIZ has taken several steps to be able to
rectify these as quickly as possible. For example, multiple backups
are made daily.
If ISIZ is at fault for a mistake, and when the relevant conditions have been met, ISIZ will pay a maximum compensation at the cost of the price quote.
1.4 Privacy
The privacy policy we employ is based in part on the code
of conduct of Esomar, the European coordinating organisation of
market research agencies. In addition, there are some further
requirements:
We guarantee our respondents that:
- Participation in market research is completely voluntary. We will never use market research in a misleading way to offer you products or services.
- Respondents are free to decide at any time whether or not they wish to continue receiving invitations for market research. They can signify at any moment that invitations may no longer be sent to their e-mail address.
- Our policy concerning handling your privacy complies with the "Wet Bescherming Persoonsgegevens" (WBP, law for the protection of personal data).
- The cookies that are used do not contain personal data, and are exclusively used for the purpose of facilitating processes on our website, or for the process of filling out the survey. We use temporary cookies; a file that is saved on your PC to recognise and automatically permit access to our website or survey servers.
1.5 Uptime
ISIZ gives a monthly 99.5% uptime guarantee on all
production machines.
This guarantee includes the following websites:
- Web survey
- Panel pages
- Certain result pages
Uptime means that the servers are available through one of our (inter)network connections. Maintenance on the servers is carried out at night to prevent downtime during peak hours. There is no uptime guarantee on the acceptance and development sites. If the guaranteed uptime is not achieved and this has caused inconvenience for the survey, the maximum compensation is the complete price of the commission's price quote. Aside from uptime, ISIZ employs a maximum time for browsing to the next page of a survey. This time is 500 milliseconds.
1.6 Availability
The survey managers can be contacted on weekdays during
office hours.
1.7 Contact Person
ISIZ strives to assign a personal contact to a client. It
may occur - e.g. due to busyness - that the assigned contact is
unable to see to the project. In that case, another contact will
take over their responsibilities.
1.8 Right of ownership
The right of ownership at ISIZ is roughly defined as
follows:
The client has right of ownership to everything that is set up with
ISIZ software. This includes texts, answers, e-mail addresses,
etc.
ISIZ has right of ownership to all meta-information and custom
work. This contains the clicking behaviour of the respondent, but
also includes designing a new question type.
1.8.1 Ownership of Questionnaires
ISIZ does not have right of ownership to the questionnaire.
This right of ownership belongs to the company that distributes the
questionnaire, or the company that has developed the
questionnaire.
The questionnaire includes:
- Question texts
- Introduction texts
- Invitation texts
- Final texts
- Answer texts
- Routing lines
- All other custom settings in SurveyFormBuilder
1.8.2 Ownership of Results
All results are, of course, within the client's rights of
ownership. ISIZ will only use these results for the purpose the
client wants them to be used for. ISIZ does have the right to any
meta-information that arises from the respondents' behaviour in
filling out the questionnaire. Examples are:
- Use of browsers
- Completion time
- Response times
- Times per page
- Response percentages
1.8.3 Ownership of E-mail Addresses
All personal and contact information of the respondents is
completely owned by the client.
1.8.4 Ownership of Customisation
ISIZ has the right of property to any customisation
1.8.5 Other Properties
All items not mentioned above are property of ISIZ.
2. Price Quotes Phase
2.1 Price quote
2.1.1 General Price Quotes
All price quotes are valid for a maximum of one month. It may
happen that typing errors or miscalculations appear in a quotation:
we reserve the right to rectify these.
2.1.2 Price Quotes Via the Web
It is possible for customers to calculate an estimate through
the price quote website. This price quote needs to be sent with the
application and becomes valid if approved. If the price quote is
approved, it is valid for 30 days.
2.2 Costs
ISIZ uses different price calculations for resellers and
end users. Resellers are: all companies or establishments that
resell the research results. All research bureaus under the MOA are
resellers by definition.
ISIZ uses calculations and general price lists in order to come to a consistent estimate. These prices are valid until a new price list is made.
2.3 Project Name
Every new project gets a project name through a fixed
nomenclature. This is the name under which the project is known in
ISIZ. This name will return in the URL, the log-in name for the
results, and on the invoice.
Because the names are given to projects through a fixed system, they cannot be adapted or changed.
3. Readying the questionnaire
3.1 Content of the questionnaire
ISIZ is not responsible for the content of the
questionnaire. If not explicitly mentioned on the price quote, ISIZ
assumes the questionnaire is delivered in publishable condition
(i.e. without spelling mistakes).
If the survey manager notes mistakes, these will be submitted to the client for feedback.
It is prohibited to include content that is not research content in the questionnaire (i.e. no hidden commercial mailing).
3.2 Providing the Questionnaire
In making the price quote, it is assumed the questionnaire
will be provided in MSWord. If the questionnaire is received in a
different format, or the content of the document is not easily
readable (e.g. because of background pictures), ISIZ reserves the
right to charge for supplemental work.
There is a minimum time span of two workdays between the time the questionnaire is received and the first test version. It can be done in a shorter time span. Depending on how busy ISIZ is, an expedition surcharge will be added.
3.3 Providing other material
Aside from the questionnaire, the following items are to
be provided:
- Visual material (Visual material must be web-ready. This means that pictures must be in jpg/gif format and optimised for the web. When pictures have to be adapted, the hours will be booked on the approximate estimate.)
- Invitation texts/reminder texts (Invitation texts should be provided in Word)
- Introduction questionnaire (The introduction to the questionnaire should be provided in Word)
- Respondent addresses (The e-mail addresses should be in excel or cvs format)
- Background variables (It is occasionally desirable to include background information (e.g. department) in the questionnaire. This background information should be included in (an) extra column(s) in the excel file.)
3.4 Input of questionnaire by the client
By means of a self-test environment, ISIZ makes it
possible to make and test questionnaires yourself.
When the questionnaire is ready, it can be sent to the survey manager. He carries out a technical check, after which the questionnaire is made live. If the questionnaire is sent in multiple times, additional costs will be charged. A yearly licence is needed for using the self-test and SurveyFormBuilder. The costs depend on the turnover, and are calculated for each customer.
3.5 Stratification
ISIZ's survey software can handle complex stratification
and segmentation problems. The survey manager defines the
stratification for the project in advance. The stratification rules
can be looked at online. The client needs to check any
stratification rules before the project is put live.
3.6 Supplemental Work
If, due to e.g. iteration, the project takes more time
than stipulated, the survey manager will report this via e-mail.
Extra hours will be charged on the basis of a subsequent
calculation. Before the supplemental work is started, an indication
of the number of hours needed to realise the supplemental work will
be given.
3.7 Customisation
If a functionality that is not in ISIZ's standard software
is desired, customisation work may be necessary.
In making the price quote, as much attention as possible is paid to see if customisation will be necessary, and after consultation it will be added in the price quote. If customisation appears to be necessary during the project, the survey manager will contact the client and give an estimation of the number of hours that will be charged as supplemental work.
3.8 Iteration moves
To carry out alterations quickly and without financial
fuss, every price quote includes an approximate estimate. The costs
of this approximate estimate depend on former projects and the
questionnaire size and/or complexity. Alterations must always be
passed on to the survey manager via e-mail.
ISIZ strives to change a textual alteration within two hours. A customisation alteration will usually be carried out within one workday. For every textual alteration sent separately, fifteen minutes starting costs will be charged. The alteration itself will usually take two to ten minutes. It is therefore advisable to send most alterations at once.
ISIZ guarantees that inputting questionnaires from Word will be exact (or better). If there are typos or mistakes than can be blamed on ISIZ in the questionnaire, these iterations will not be charged but instead yield fifteen minutes on the approximate estimate per incident (no monetary compensation).
3.9 Checking
As soon as the programming of the questionnaire is
finished, the client is informed.
If the client agrees, he or she should send an e-mail of approval
to the survey manager.
As soon as this approval is received, another survey manager will
run one last, final check when the questionnaire has been put on
the production server. If the survey manager OKs the questionnaire,
the respondents are invited. There is a minimum of 60 minutes
between the time of approval and the time the project goes live.
ISIZ strives to get the survey live within two hours after the
client's approval. If a survey needs to go live on the same day, it
is advisable to approve before 16.00.
4. Questionnaire on-line
4.1 Alterations
When the questionnaire is live, it is no longer possible
to make alterations. It is (however) possible to put another
questionnaire ready where all new respondents are linked to.
In this case, extra initialisation fee will be charged atop of the
time necessary to make the alterations.
Attention: the results will be exported in multiple files. ISIZ can
combine the files for a supplemental fee. Likewise, the web-results
cannot be found in one project.
4.2 Mailings
The e-mail inviting respondents will be sent between 8am
and 11pm. This is to achieve the widest possible range. Depending
on the size of the file and the length of the questionnaire, more
or less e-mails will be sent per hour. It can take several hours to
several days until all e-mail has been sent. Through the on-line
monitor, the client can see exactly how many e-mails have been
sent.
If the respondent addresses are sent to ISIZ in several batches, a half-hour supplemental fee is charged per batch sent.
4.3 Functioning
ISIZ guarantees that her surveys work on all mainstream
browsers and operating systems.
This includes but is not limited to: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, W2K,
XP, 2003, MacOSX, Vista.
The (HTML) code of the questionnaire's lay-out fulfils the W3C HTML
standards, and thus also functions on less popular browsers such
as: Opera, Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox, Safari, etc.
ISIZ does not offer guarantees about the survey's speed, because this speed depends on too many factors. These factors include: length of the questionnaire, server speed, internet connection speed, etc.
Once a month, ISIZ does check the average speed of the surveys of the last month. In this, ISIZ strives to meet the average loading time of 500ms per page.
4.4 Process monitors
During the questionnaire's on-line time, various
meta-information about the survey can be requested.
4.5 On-line monitor|
The results of the project are available on-line. ISIZ
generates these on-line results at regular intervals.
These results can be regenerated at request.
4.6 Helpdesk
During the on-line process, a helpdesk is available for respondents. Questions about the technical functioning of the questionnaire are usually answered within 36 hours. These questions are not automatically sent to the client, but are available at request. Questions concerning content are forwarded unmodified to the client. The respondent is notified of this.
If there are questions concerning the source of the address file, the client has an obligation to respond to the respondent within 48 hours. The respondent is notified by the survey helpdesk that the matter is being investigated and he or she can expect an answer within 48 hours. Mail about a project will be replied to until 14 days after the project has closed. After this, mail will be bounced.
5. Exportation of the results
5.1 Analysis of Results
ISIZ does not devise questionnaires and does not analyse
the results.
5.2 Delivering results
Results are normally delivered in SPSS, Excel, or our own
.Enquete format.
If extra background variables that were not known or available
during the survey's set-up, a supplemental fee will be charged (one
hour in general).
5.3 Availability of Results
As a service, ISIZ saves the results on the server for an
indefinite period of time. If so desired, the results can be
deleted directly after the exportation.
ISIZ guarantees availability of the results for a minimum of 30
days after closing the project.
